B2b Commerce

B2B Commerce

Overview

B2B commerce adds wholesale capabilities to your store: company accounts where multiple employees order under one credit limit, custom pricing per account, a quote-to-order workflow for large or custom orders, and net payment terms (Net 30/60/90) with invoice generation. Most platforms have first-party B2B features or dedicated apps that handle these requirements without custom development.

When to Use This Skill

• When onboarding wholesale customers who require account-level pricing, catalogs, and credit terms
• When building a distributor portal where multiple employees at the same company can place orders under a shared credit limit
• When implementing a configure-price-quote (CPQ) flow for custom or large-volume orders
• When replacing a phone/email-based wholesale ordering process with a self-service portal
• When B2B customers require purchase order numbers on invoices for their accounts payable process

Core Instructions

Step 1: Determine your platform and choose the right B2B tool

Step 2: Set up company accounts and wholesale pricing

Shopify Plus — B2B (built-in)

1. In Shopify admin, go to Customers → B2B → Companies → Create company 2. Enter the company name, billing address, payment terms (e.g., Net 30), and credit limit 3. Add company locations (shipping addresses) and assign buyer contacts to the company 4. Create a Price List for the company: go to Customers → B2B → Price Lists → Create price list and set custom prices per product or a percentage discount on all products 5. Assign the price list to the company — company buyers see these prices when logged in 6. Company buyers see a B2B-specific checkout with net terms payment options and a PO number field

Quote workflow on Shopify Plus:

• Shopify's built-in B2B includes a Draft Orders feature — sales reps create draft orders for buyers, the buyer reviews and approves, then the draft converts to an order
• Go to Orders → Create order to create a draft; share the link with the buyer for approval

Shopify (non-Plus) — Wholesale Club

1. Install Wholesale Club from the Shopify App Store 2. Create a "Wholesale" customer tag in Shopify 3. In Wholesale Club, create a discount tier for the "Wholesale" tag: e.g., 30% off everything for tagged customers 4. Apply the wholesale tag to customer accounts when you approve them for wholesale 5. Tagged customers see the discounted prices when logged in; non-tagged customers see retail prices 6. For minimum order quantities: Wholesale Club's paid tier supports MOQs per product or order

WooCommerce

WooCommerce B2B (official extension): 1. Install from WooCommerce.com 2. Go to WooCommerce → B2B → Registration to create a wholesale account registration form with business details (company name, tax ID, etc.) 3. Manually approve wholesale registrations in WooCommerce → B2B → Customers 4. Set pricing rules: apply a percentage discount to user role "Wholesale Customer" across all products or per category 5. For net terms: WooCommerce B2B adds a "Pay by Invoice" payment gateway — orders placed with net terms generate an invoice PDF and allow deferred payment

Alternative — WooCommerce Role-Based Pricing:

• Create a "Wholesale" user role (using the User Role Editor plugin)
• Use the WooCommerce Role-Based Pricing plugin to set per-role prices per product or per category

BigCommerce

Customer Groups (available on all plans): 1. Go to Customers → Customer Groups → Add 2. Create a "Wholesale" group with a percentage discount on all products or category-specific discounts 3. Assign wholesale customers to this group manually or via registration form rules 4. Customers in the Wholesale group see group-specific pricing at checkout

BigCommerce B2B Edition (add-on for growing wholesale operations): 1. Contact BigCommerce sales to add B2B Edition to your plan 2. B2B Edition adds: company accounts with multiple buyers, quote requests, corporate payment methods, and a buyer portal 3. The buyer portal lets company admins manage users, view order history, and request quotes from a self-service interface

Step 3: Set up a quote workflow

For large or custom orders, a quote workflow lets buyers request a price before committing.

Shopify Plus

1. Use Draft Orders — a sales rep creates a draft order with custom pricing 2. Share the draft order link with the buyer via email 3. The buyer reviews the order in Shopify's checkout and approves/places the order 4. For a more formal quote system: install QuoteIQ or CPQ Configurator apps from the Shopify App Store

WooCommerce

1. Install WooCommerce Request a Quote (free, by YITH or similar) 2. Add a "Request a Quote" button to product pages — buyers add items to a quote cart 3. Buyer submits the quote request; you receive an email with the items and quantities 4. Edit the quote (adjust pricing) and send back to the buyer with an approval link 5. Buyer approves → quote converts to a WooCommerce order automatically

BigCommerce B2B Edition

• B2B Edition includes a native quote module — buyers click "Request a Quote" on any product
• You receive the quote request in the BigCommerce admin, set pricing, and send it back
• Buyers approve quotes and place the order in one step

Step 4: Configure net payment terms and invoice generation

Net terms let B2B buyers pay after receiving goods (Net 30 = pay within 30 days of invoice).

Shopify Plus

1. On the company record: set Payment Terms to Net 15, Net 30, Net 60, or Net 90 2. When a B2B buyer places an order, Shopify creates a "due on" date automatically 3. Track outstanding invoices in Customers → B2B → Orders → Invoices 4. Send payment reminders: Shopify automatically emails buyers when invoices are due (configure in Settings → Notifications)

Accounting integration for net terms:

• Connect Shopify to QuickBooks Online or Xero via their Shopify connectors
• Net terms orders sync as unpaid invoices in QuickBooks/Xero
• Your accounting team manages the payment collection follow-up from QuickBooks/Xero

WooCommerce

• The WooCommerce B2B extension's "Pay by Invoice" gateway creates PDF invoices with due dates based on net terms
• Connect to QuickBooks via the QuickBooks Online WooCommerce extension for AR tracking
• For automated payment reminders: use AutomateWoo to send reminder emails 7 days before and on the invoice due date

BigCommerce

• B2B Edition's corporate payment methods include "Net terms" options
• Connect to QuickBooks or NetSuite via their BigCommerce connectors for invoice tracking

Step 5: Custom / Headless — core B2B data model

// Company account with credit management
interface Company {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  taxId?: string;             // EIN, VAT number
  billingAddress: Address;
  paymentTerms: 'prepay' | 'net15' | 'net30' | 'net60' | 'net90';
  creditLimitCents: number | null;  // null = no limit
  creditUsedCents: number;
  status: 'pending' | 'approved' | 'suspended';
}

// Check credit before placing an order
async function checkCreditAvailability(
  companyId: string,
  orderTotalCents: number
): Promise<{ approved: boolean; reason?: string }> {
  const company = await db.companies.findById(companyId);
  if (company.status !== 'approved') {
    return { approved: false, reason: 'Company account not approved' };
  }
  if (company.creditLimitCents !== null) {
    const availableCredit = company.creditLimitCents - company.creditUsedCents;
    if (orderTotalCents > availableCredit) {
      return {
        approved: false,
        reason: `Order exceeds available credit. Available: $${(availableCredit / 100).toFixed(2)}`,
      };
    }
  }
  return { approved: true };
}

// Record credit usage when order is placed (in same DB transaction as order creation)
async function consumeCredit(companyId: string, amountCents: number): Promise<void> {
  // Atomic update prevents race condition when multiple buyers order simultaneously
  await db.raw(
    'UPDATE companies SET credit_used_cents = credit_used_cents + ? WHERE id = ? AND credit_used_cents + ? <= COALESCE(credit_limit_cents, 2147483647)',
    [amountCents, companyId, amountCents]
  );
}

Best Practices

• Require company approval before enabling net terms — run a basic credit check or manual review before setting net terms; at minimum, verify the company's business registration
• Enforce credit limits atomically — check and update credit in the same database transaction that creates the order; race conditions can allow two buyers to exceed the limit simultaneously
• Always put the PO number on invoices — B2B buyers require their internal PO number on every invoice for their accounts payable workflow; missing this causes payment delays of 30–60 days
• Release credit when orders are paid or cancelled — decrement credit_used when you receive payment; this lets buyers place new orders without waiting for manual adjustments
• Set quote expiration dates — approved quotes with custom pricing should expire after 30 days to prevent buyers from ordering at stale prices after costs change
• Audit all quote price changes — log who changed which line item price and when; this is important for margin tracking and potential disputes

Common Pitfalls

Related Skills

• @vendor-management
• @order-management-system
• @returns-refund-policy
• @multi-channel-selling
• @accounts-payable-management

Wholesale Portal Database Migration

Problem/Feature Description

SupplyChain Direct is migrating from a legacy wholesale ordering platform to a modern PostgreSQL-backed system. The legacy system tracked company customers as a flat list with a single billing contact, but the new platform needs to support multiple buyers per company account, per-user purchase controls, and deferred payment arrangements (net terms).

The engineering team is starting with the database migration. They need SQL that models company accounts with proper payment term options and credit tracking, assigns users to company accounts with role-based controls, and maintains a per-company product catalog with optional custom pricing. The finance team has emphasized that monetary values must be stored consistently and that the schema must enforce valid values for status and payment term fields.

Output Specification

Write a PostgreSQL migration file named migration.sql containing the CREATE TABLE statements for the company accounts data model. The migration should be standalone and runnable against a PostgreSQL database that already has users and products tables.

Document any design decisions in a design_notes.md file — particularly how you chose to store monetary amounts, how you enforced field constraints, and how you separated company-level from user-level data.

B2B Portal: Catalog, Checkout Controls, and Invoice Features

Problem/Feature Description

MedEquip Wholesale operates a portal for hospitals and clinics purchasing medical equipment. Different hospital networks have negotiated distinct pricing agreements, and some products are only available to certain accounts. The platform already has a company_catalogs table that stores per-company product visibility and pricing overrides, but the catalog endpoint currently ignores these and returns the same list to everyone.

Three features need to be built out. First, the product listing API must return a company-specific view: showing only their contracted products with their negotiated prices, but falling back to the full product catalog for accounts that have no custom catalog configured. Second, the checkout flow has had incidents where junior purchasing staff approved large orders without the required internal sign-off — approval logic currently lives only in the frontend, and the team wants it enforced on the server regardless of what the client sends. Third, the finance team is manually generating invoices and needs them automated: each fulfilled order with net payment terms needs a PDF invoice with the correct payment due date and the hospital's internal purchase order number for their accounts payable system. Finally, the credit management team reports that cancelled and paid orders are not releasing the credit they consumed, causing companies to hit their limits prematurely.

Output Specification

Implement the following in TypeScript, organized into files as you see fit:

1. getCatalogForCompany(companyId) — returns the product list scoped to the company's catalog configuration 2. checkOrderApprovalRequired(companyId, buyerId, orderTotal) — returns whether an order needs approval before it can be placed 3. A checkout/place-order API handler that calls the approval check on the server side 4. generateInvoice(orderId) — returns a PDF buffer for the order's invoice 5. Credit release logic for order payment and cancellation events

Write all implementations to files and include a short summary.md describing your approach to each feature.

Assume the following are available: db (with tables: companies, company_users, company_catalogs, products, orders, order_lines), calculateTax(order), and a PDF generation library of your choice. Do not use any external API services — everything should work offline.

Quote Management System for Wholesale Orders

Problem/Feature Description

BuildRight Materials sells construction supplies to contractors and distributors. Their current process involves phone calls and spreadsheets to negotiate large custom orders. The sales team wants a self-service portal where business customers can request quotes for large orders, the sales team can review and counter-propose pricing, and the customer can then convert an accepted quote into an actual order.

The backend team needs TypeScript functions that handle the entire quote lifecycle. Price negotiations are sensitive — the system must keep a clear record of how prices changed during negotiation, and approved prices must remain locked in even if the underlying product catalog changes afterward. There have also been incidents where high-value orders were placed against exhausted credit lines, so the credit check must be robust against concurrent activity.

Output Specification

Implement the following TypeScript functions in a file named quote-workflow.ts:

• submitQuote(quoteId, buyerNotes?) — transitions a quote from initial state to submitted and alerts the responsible sales contact
• approveQuote(quoteId, approvedBy, finalPrices) — finalizes negotiated prices and marks the quote ready to convert; the approved quote should have a limited window before it expires
• placeOrderFromQuote(quoteId, buyerId, poNumber?) — converts an approved, non-expired quote into an order, consuming the company's available credit

Also write a brief implementation_notes.md explaining your approach to credit safety and price integrity.

Assume the following are already available as imports or globals: db (database client with tables: quotes, quoteLines, orders, orderLines, companies), emailService, getAccountManagerEmail(companyId), getBuyerEmail(userId).